“It’s my party, I can cry if I want to”

Liberal Rep. Jared Polis has been sent to time out.  First, Governor Hickenlooper surprised the world by declaring attempts to call a special session over (note: this happened while most of his staff is on vacation).  Then, embattled Sen. Mark Udall and Andrew Romanoff (D-Still Deciding), who is running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman in Colorado’s Sixth Congressional District, came out against Initiative 88 and 89.

Then, we received notice that Hickenlooper would be holding a press conference this afternoon to also denounce these ill-conceived initiatives.

This means that Polis is all alone in his corner with his radical environmentalists.  This cannot be how he imagined it would go down.  But, perhaps he shouldn’t be surprised.

The three who have banded together to denounce Polis’ temper tantrum-induced initiatives just happen to be Udall, who is stinking it up in the polls (see: Quinnipiac, Gravis); Hickenlooper, who is behind in polling compared to his Republican opponent Bob Beauprez; and Romanoff, who is facing an uphill climb against one of the hardest working Congressmen out there.  Is it any wonder that the three of them are sprinting toward the center on this (or any) issue?

Beyond the success of the initiatives, at stake for Polis is the possibility of leading the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.  Word on the Hill is that he’s still angling for the job.  But, now that his fellow Democrats have already coalesced against Polis’ ballot initiatives to save their own hides come November, has Polis lost much of his leverage?